The growing shortage of fresh surface water has meant there is an increasing demand to use, where possible ground water, sea water, recycled water, and so forth instead of fresh surface water. The purification of non-fresh water can be achieved using a number of different technologies. In some cases, the feed water may be initially pretreated using coagulation and flocculation techniques, followed by secondary treatment such as sedimentation, clarification or sand filtration. A third treatment step may include membrane filtration such as reverse osmosis to achieve the desired water purification.
There is a need to provide alternative, efficient and cost effective technologies for purifying water on an industrial and or commercial scale. An example attracting interest involves treating recycled water or industrial waste water so that it can be used as a water source in applications that do not necessarily require drinking water.